Week ending 1st July 2016

Our Year 11 Prom was held this week and for the first time in Chesterton’s history we ventured beyond the school hall to our lawn, beside the tennis courts, and a beautiful marquee. Despite inclement weather it was a wonderful evening with all the students looking amazing and clearly enjoying their final school experience. A very emotional time for everyone involved.

Miss Palmer and Dr Hutchinson have spent one day a fortnight for the last year working as Fellows of the Farmington Institute at Oxford University. Their research has investigated the use of iPads as a tool to help students shape their own learning in the new RE GCSE course (Ethics). Last weekend, they presented a conference paper to the Farmington Institute at their annual conference at Harris Manchester College. The presentation was very well received and Chesterton has already had three requests for other schools to visit us to learn more about the iPad programme as a result of this event

Congratulations to those students who succeeded in the interviews for a Y10 work experience place at Cambridge University Press. Heidi Mulvey, who co-ordinates the programme, has had nothing but praise for the students who applied, went to interview, and even those who weren’t offered a placement; she said the standard was fantastic.

On Tuesday, 21 students from Years 8 and 9 participated in the Cambridge City Youth Games for Year 3 and 4 primary as leaders. Students helped to run the events of sitting volleyball, quick sticks hockey and rounders. The students proved themselves to be outstanding leaders and made the day into a successful event along with leaders from Netherhall and St Bedes. Well done to all students, who have now gained six hours towards their leadership logs.

On Wednesday a mix of Year 7, 8 and 9 students acted as leaders at the KS1 Castle School sports day. The students worked to create a smooth running event and have gained three and half hours towards their leadership log. The Castle School P.E. teacher was incredibly impressed with our students and would love to work with them all again.

This Friday members of the Music department are going to St Andrew’s Church in Chesterton to give a lunchtime recital at 12.30pm. We have students from Year 7-11 performing in a variety of styles. We were approached by the church and hope it will be an enjoyable occasion for the students and audience members.

Twenty-three acrylic self portrait paintings are currently on display at Milton Road Library. Year 9 students have been studying the work of photorealist artist Chuck Close; they have learnt to use the grid method to scale up and a range of acrylic paint techniques to create their self-portraits. All of Year 9 have been working on this project but only a few have been selected for display. Please do pop along and have a look at the impressive work during normal library opening hours.

Chesterton Students in FXP Gaming Festival Success: several months ago we were invited to enter a KS4 team for a new competition “FXP Festival”. Students were supplied with an Android tablet and Gamemaker software, which was installed on the PCs in school. In the end we actually entered three teams, one from the current Year 11 and two from the current Year 10. All three teams spent a couple of months familiarising themselves with the software, in preparation for the competition, which started on Saturday 25th June. At 9am. All three teams met up at CRC and, along with lots of other teams from the East of England, were informed that the theme of the event was “Twins”. Each team was given a goody bag, including at least three event T-shirts. They worked on their game ideas until 5:00pm on Saturday, stopping only to eat and drink. All three teams returned on Sunday morning, at 8:30, and again worked through until 5:00pm when they handed in their completed game on the Android device. On Monday all three teams made their way to Anglia Ruskin University, here in Cambridge, while eminent people from ARM, HackLab, YoYo Games and others judged the games back at CRC. While judging took place, the students were given talks from Hacklab on the Future of Gaming; from ARM on the future of Mobile devices and Gaming; from Anglia Ruskin on how to get into the Gaming industry and from a stand-up comedian on how to give an effective pitch. One of our Year 10 teams, “Danny and the He-Men”, comprising Danny, Eryk, Zac, Pepe and Pau scooped second prize for development of their “Karl and Keven Koala” game. First prize went to our Year 11 team “Rustle” aka “Kelly’s Minions”, comprising Jeff, Emily, Mary, Luc and Lihi. All students received free licences for the Gamemaker software so that they can continue to develop their ideas. Everyone enjoyed the event and the Year 10s are keen to participate again next year, when the competition goes national. Well done everyone!

We are sending out the following message via Parentmail, but I felt it was important to copy it here to ensure as many people read this as possible. In addition, next week we are delivering a number of assemblies within school which celebrate the wonderful diversity and tolerance within Chesterton:

In the wake of the referendum you may have read about acts of xenophobic abuse in Cambridgeshire schools, directed at people from other countries. At national level Amnesty International is launching a priority campaign to tackle these issues. Against that unsettling background, on behalf of Chesterton’s governing body and leadership team, we are writing to assure students, parents, and staff of every race, religion, culture and nationality that you are truly welcome at Chesterton. The school’s ethos embodies a deeply-held belief in mutual respect, in valuing other people for who they are, and in treating others as we would ourselves like to be treated. We are enriched by the diversity of experience of life and culture brought by staff and students who collectively speak over 40 languages. Their presence, their ideas, and their perspectives add depth and breadth to our common life. Some live in Cambridge permanently; others are here temporarily, often by way of academic visits; all are welcome as part of the Chesterton family”.